Holiday trip up North!

We did it! We went up and visited the frozen tundra known as the Salt Lake Valley!

Of course we hit the zoo twice despite the fact that the temperatures were barely at freezing.






We also played hard with cousins and friends. We got to have a sleepover at Romney, Chase, and Emma's house and our friend Ruby's! It was a great trip full of fun holiday stuff. Thanks for the waffles and movie, Aunt Rachel. Maybe next time we'll do it in St. George where there is never any smog!

Family Pictures

We took family pictures back right before Thanksgiving and they are finally all ready to go and we got our prints and our Christmas Card and Mommy is VERY happy. So here are our fun family photos!

First some pictures of me :)



This is the one Mommy and Daddy picked to get a big copy of



Now some pictures of that stinker, Cara.



This is the big one of her



And now a lot of pictures of us and Mom and Dad



Our favorite that was made big



And for the finale...the best picture ever taken of Mommy that probably captures her best:

Winter is here...um I mean fall?

Last Sunday we woke up to a splendid sight...you would think a fresh blanket of snow wouldn't you? Isn't that what most people love to see...my Mommy is not most people and she would be happy for maybe a moment.... No we woke up to a cold morning that meant that all of the fruitless mulberry trees in our neighborhood had dropped their leaves all at once. And their leaves are HUGE. It was a very fun morning walking to church making leaf angels and wading through huge piles of leaves on the sidewalk. In fact, part of our neighborhood's road was COVERED in these leaves, so much that you couldn't see the road!





And of course, Mommy and Daddy are in to the full swing of Christmas. We've been watching Christmas movies since Thanksgiving (we've seen The Santa Clause probably 30 times...it's Mommy's favorite.) And Daddy had Uncle Eric and Uncle Marty and Uncle Marty's awesome friend Craven help us put up our lights this year...



Didn't they do a great job?

Just kidding!! That's not our house. They really did do a great job though! That house is a famous one around here. Everybody loves to drive by it. They get it all done up every year. We love how our house looks though!

The Funeral

Disclaimer from Mommy: Please forgive me if you find the documenting of my grandmother's funeral offensive. I wanted to capture this moment in time like any other, as it was a celebration of her life. That does include at least one picture of her and her casket which I found beautiful....





Grandma, yesterday we finally had the opportunity to pay our respects and acknowledge your life. It was beautiful. The weather threatened to be snowy and bitterly cold but we were pleasantly surprised with a crisp mostly sunny December morning. My mom arranged everything wonderfully. Uncle David was able to finally make it and Aunt Teresa came with Uncle Rick and Kathy. You had friends come and share their memories and their love. You will be greatly missed by your Kmart shoppers!





The graveside service was poignant and touching. Your daughters loved you very much and spoke of how much you had taught them. Marty reminded us that we will see you again and that our Savior made that possible.





Pete played the cello for you to help send you home. I hope you were able to be there and listen.

Grandma, we love you. Siena insists that her doggy, that she took from your house, go with us everywhere, including your funeral. She had it kiss you for her.





And of course it was nice to be able to be with family. I enjoyed seeing Kathy again and picking out your final resting place with my Mom and sister. The girls love it...they get to see horses like the ones you used to work with.

PhotoBooth Obsession

Any Mac user out there will know what this is about with just a glance at the title. For all your PCers out there, let me tell you, Mac's come standard with an application called "Photobooth". And it's addicting. There are all these fun effects that you apply as you are taking your pictures and it can just get GOOFY. Way back when Mommy and Daddy got their first Mac, Mommy's brothers and sister came out to visit and had quite the party just playing with this one application.

In fact, once Grandma and Grandpa got their own Mac, Photobooth became the regular past time. So much so that despite the fact that Mommy recently went through and attempted to delete some of their pictures, they still have over 400 photos in just their photobooth. Part of that is my fault, I am OBSESSED with taking my picture using photobooth. Mommy just recently added the feature to her Iphone but I can't work it as well and sometimes she discovers 32 pictures of just my forehead using different effects. So here are a couple of examples of when I've talked my family into playing with me on photo booth.





And just for fun, how many faces do you see?

Thanksgiving Fun

We have just been enjoying this Thanksgiving weekend. We had a wonderful meal at Grandma's house and Grandpa Great and Grandma Bev joined us. Very pleasant. (Of course Cara slept through the whole meal and ate her own Thanksgiving by herself at the table!) And the rest of the weekend has just been spent being with each other and enjoying family. (I have slept in my clothes 4 nights in a row!)

Yesterday we kept with tradition and did the Post-Thanksgiving hike of Angel's Landing. It wasn't our best weather...it was still a little chilly when you get to the windy spots but the weather was beautiful. I hiked all the way up to Scout's Lookout by MYSELF! Very little help from Daddy and no riding on the shoulders at all!



Now check out these two pictures:





How awesome are they?! The first one is of me when I was 18 months old (refer to this post). And the second one was of Cara wearing the same outfit. Mommy meant to get a picture of Cara smiling and happy and showing the difference but she threw a tantrum and the last second. HA! This is really how Cara feels about her Uncle Marty though. She crawled right up on his lap and sacked out.

He's Home! He's Home! He's Home!

And he did it. He made it. He's home. Uncle Marty is here! Aunt Becca got him good at the airport in Salt Lake City. He was so surprised to see her and they talked the whole flight to St. George non-stop. They made all of the people waiting for him at the airport wait forever getting off the plane because some little lady passed out in front of them and they couldn't get by to get off the plane! Too funny! It was so wonderful to hug him. He's a really good hugger.

Here they are waiting for Uncle Marty. (Yeah....I wasn't there. Mommy thought it would be too overwhelming for everyone.)


And here's Grandma getting her hands on him!


All together again!



And everybody was worried that we wouldn't love our Uncle and would be all scared of him....nope...try again :) Nothing but hugs and kisses and sitting on laps from us! WELCOME HOME UNCLE MARTY!!!!!!!!!!




(Oh and check out our previous post about Daddy's birthday because we added some DANG cute pictures of us eating his cake!)